Snacks `Healthier,' But They're Not Health Foods

October 20, 2002|By Sally Squires The Washington Post

You've seen the headlines: McDonald's is taking the trans fatty acids out of its french fries. Frito-Lay is experimenting with broccoli chips and early next year plans to introduce reduced-fat Cheetos. Nudged by a public interested in good nutrition, food companies are lining up to offer healthier snacks.

Question is, how much healthier?

"This won't make McDonald's french fries a health food," notes Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "But it is a good step forward toward reducing the artery-clogging fats in fried foods and helping Americans to reduce their risk of heart disease."

As registered dietitian Samantha Heller puts it: Many of the so-called "healthier" snack foods contain the same number of calories as the full-strength stuff they're meant to replace. "So you're not necessarily getting a low-calorie, low-fat food," says Heller, senior clinical nutritionist at New York University.

Even so, with a little knowledge, planned snacks -- not the mindless munching that many people engage in -- can play an important role in healthy eating.

"Snacks are a good way to help maintain weight and not gain weight," says Nelda Mercer, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetics Association. "They take some of the edge off hunger so that you're not tempted to stop at a fast-food place or overeat."

Here's how to help make snacking part of a balanced, healthy approach to eating:

Read the fine print. Just because a snack food contains broccoli (or other vegetables) doesn't necessarily make it a health food. Take Terra Chips (made with sliced sweet potato, yuca, taro root, balata and parsnip). A 1-ounce serving contains 7 grams of fat -- 1 gram more than Tostito's White Corn taco chips. The Terra chips have 3 grams of fiber -- that's 2 grams more than the taco chips -- but they have half the calcium. You'll get identical amounts of iron from both types of chips, and each contains 1 gram of saturated fat. As for calories: Terra Chips clock in at 140 per serving while the Tostitos contain 130.

Check portion sizes. You've heard it before, but it can't be underscored enough: Portion size really does count. And just because a package of snack food looks like a single serving doesn't mean that it is. Take pretzels. Some vending-machine packages contain 2.5 servings per bag. Ditto for microwave popcorn, which pops about 12 cups per bag, enough for three servings -- or about 420 calories, including 12 grams of fat, 2.5 of them saturated.

Boost nutrition with snacks. Registered dietitian Mercer, of Ann Arbor, Mich., eats snacks to embellish her diet with healthy food. She has a banana for a mid-morning snack, low-fat string cheese with whole-wheat crackers as a late-afternoon snack and a small, pre-measured portion of nuts (with healthy fat) while she's preparing dinner. And when she yearns for chocolate, she eats a Crave bar, a snack item from Kellogg's.

Fix your own healthy snack foods. Aim for 100 to 200 calories per snack, include a little protein, carbohydrate and fat in each snack and limit snacking to about two hours before or after a meal. Some healthy possibilities: pudding made with low-fat or nonfat milk; a cup of soup; hummus and whole-wheat pita bread; salsa or guacamole with carrot sticks and a few taco chips or whole-wheat crackers for dipping; yogurt topped with fresh fruit and a few nuts; or a small portion of trail mix made with cereal, raisins, mini-pretzels and a few chocolate chips.